Synology Nas & Plex advice

Plex Media Server NAS & Devices
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Server Version#:
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Hi,
I’m relatively new to all of this so would appreciate any advice/help please. I’ve just bought a Synology Nas Ds220j and loaded loads of photos/videos, music and movies/TV programmes onto it. From looking around Plex seemed the best way to watch the movies (and access the other stuff too). I loaded around 800GB of movies/TV shows, mainly mkv format, and around 100gb of music and 500gb of photos/vids.
The problem is it is running very slowly when I try to watch on my Samsung TV (UE50NU7400). Movies play but buffer for a while 1st and each menu takes a long while to load. Sometimes some menus will fail to load. Tonight, I’ve removed the photo library (and am moving it to photo station instead).
So, does anybody have any advice/help? Am I doing something really basic wrong? Is there any quick fixes that would help? Is all the metadata slowing it down (its nice but I could live without it)?

Thanks,
D

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Read
Review Installation & Setup of Plex Media Server on Synology.

The entire document is very useful, helping to avoid various pitfalls. Pay particular attention to the part about organizing your media: Do not use the /plex shared folder; Do not use Synology’s pre-defined media folders.

Update
Make sure you are running the current version of Plex Media Server. The version in Synology’s Package Center is a year out of date. The current version is available directly from Plex. See the Installation & Setup document for information on performing a manual installation. The Synology FAQ has additional details: Synology FAQ - Questions, Answers, and a few How-To’s

Monitor Scheduling & Monitor NAS CPU
If the NAS is busy creating video preview & chapter thumbnails it will make things less responsive. If this is happening, you can schedule it for off hours. In Settings -> Library change the settings from “As a scheduled task and when media is added” to “As a scheduled task.” Set the start/stop times in Setting -> Scheduled Tasks.

You can monitor NAS CPU using the Synology Resource Monitor.

Playback
Make sure your movies are direct playing or direct streaming, not transcoding. The DS220j has an ARM CPU and will struggle transcoding 1080p media. Direct playing means the Plex Server streams the media unmodified. Transcoding happens when the media is not compatible with the Plex client (app), and the server must change it to a compatible format.

You can monitor playback via the Plex Dashboard. This will show you if the media is transcoding.

To help with smooth playback, be aware of the limitations of the various Plex clients. This mostly means watching out for incompatible audio and subtitle formats.

With the Plex Samsung app:

  • Enabling PGS or VOBSUB subtitles forces a video transcode.
  • If the audio is transcoding, enabling any subtitle format forces a video transcode.
  • TrueHD or dts audio will be transcoded, as Samsung does not license those formats.

Movies released on blu-ray disc with TrueHD audio also have a Dolby Digital version of the audio track. Choose the Dolby Digital version if possible, as it will direct play on your TV.

Many movies have dts-HD and dts audio. If you play a movie/show with dts audio, then do not enable subtitles, as it will force a video transcode.

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How are you trying to play your content? Are you connecting directly to your TV or going through a streaming device (Roku, etc)? Are you hardwire connected or wifi?

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Hi, hanks for the info- really helpful.

WiFi connection (pretty quick speeds) straight from Nas/plex to TV.

I’ve made a separate folder for the files to go in (most standard dvd, some 1080, no 4k).

I’m not running the current plex update so will try that.

I waited until the scans were finished (took a long while) but still very unrest.

I’m currently reindexing stuff as I have moved the photos to a different folder and am going to trial them through photo station so the NAS is pretty busy.

Just want plex to be able to run movies and TV shows off my NAS and, ideally, music streamed to my sonos (i bought the Synology not realising synology and sonos are not compatible, but heard plex can kind of be used as a music provider on sonos).

Honestly appreciate any help. Will feedback with the above updates etc. once the rendering is done.

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You should be able to play your media. You just have to be careful and avoid transcoding as much as possible, especially with 1080p media.

Play a movie and see what is shown in the Plex dashboard.

If possible, post a screenshot showing video and audio streams.

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